THE NO-LI CENSE QUESTION.

Nelson Evening Mail, 25 November 1905, Page 1

THE NO-LI CENSE QUESTION.

To the Editor. S:r,—The Npi-Licenso party at the present time make a great deal-out of the utterances of Sir Frederick Troves on the qutstion of alcohol— a very lurid leaflet, with a percentage of truth and a very much larger percentage of error being now in circulation on the subject. Sir Frederick is like many other brilliant men, "he unfortunately alldws his bias to obscure his sense of fair Play. He is perfectly right in deecriijing alco'hol as a poison ;. w'i do not drink raw spirit, however, but its preparations, a vastly difb rent, thing. S-P&akiiiiT gieaorallv, most foods drinks, if carried to excess, are poisonous, but it is the moderate mau in all things who extracts the! benefit without incurring the danger. In spoalciug of the preparations 0/ alcohol, whisky takes an easy first. A well-matured whisky, taken with soda water, is one of the' most efficient beverages wo possess for indigestion and kindred evilvf Brandy is undoubtedly the worst of the alcohofic preparations, in tho fact that it hai-dehs the liver and retards d^gesticrti ; gin and rUm.aro not to be commended owimg to thiir diuretic and feeding properties respectively. Sir Frederick Treves speaks ;>f it as a. "curiously insidious poison," an-d its only antidote is to take it again,"—an extraordinary statement for so eminent a man to make. If '• it hr.s all the dire effects he speaks of, why take .it again ? . The experience of c«»r turics is all against Sii- Frederick Treves' well-meaning remarks however. A brain stimulant it certainly is, a depressant it certainly is not if> taken the moderate man tak.es itl What about the Vikings of old with, their gallons of mead and'aldj? Somo of the unfortunates they!- sliced up with their long swords and battleaxea would have been very, glad if alcohol had depressed , them. Almost all the brilliaijtV writers anid thinlters for ages have taken' preparations of alcohol-in ■moderation ; would "they havb done so if they had not derived benefit from it ? What is the j dominant race of the present time ?. .—thie '.Anglo Saxon— beer and whis-. ky drihbers J . What are tho races &&>U"»}SJ3K». JOJ SWBft d*l% ■ W? 2uip3oo.T —the ■.■"■'jPurk's, Hindoos, Egyptians, Aralirians, and phinosc—all abstainers as a xvtiviv ; what have they 1 fontribuitod to the world of thought jor the advance; of 'humanity ? Most ; people'-'''are aware that alcoholic stftmulants ftre not required in hot clitiiatws : if the men had it on tho Ladysmith march someone was preatly to blanii?, and it is no wonIder tk?y dropped out. In the frigid zone alcohol is-also out of its

p}ace, ofchc-i' stimulants; .in-' they & shape o£ 'fatj nieatß; > takihlfijr'f^ .-<-'■ place, but ,'it is^ in ; tentperate .4"egsonEi -V witii Chair tt-ying climates 1 that, al- .,; coholic preparations will be .valued, ". .Sir Frederick, to be.fair- in: .the :'. ' mvatter , should htCv^: pbiadtibd Zoiip,&>&"; dangers of tea and C6fffe6 ift\ (MOJeSS. . ';."-, The heavy tea ■-.■drinker ' hectfmes't.a •• more deplorable, nervous^iwi'eck^ - ~ than the heavy alcohoHc-drinkcri,-'. v ; for tho simple reason - that^r-the;; a alkaloid '•'thein" in tea, with 1 ' ; -1ongs >' continued Us?o, has a very d(>rV : fc;rf- :--. bus effect on the whole systemi-v. id ..-. ; the same may lie said in a -llesscr r degfee' of tho alkaloid .'••■'caffeine'?-.. -in- j\ coffee; these have no stimiilating ejf- - : fects worth noticing, but the 4«r pression is very marked. It may ' be said' l am exaggerating, but" when one calls in a doctor, in niariy- . cases of illness arising from indi-, . gestion, tea is the first th|ntr,to he Stopped; .. . \ .;,,'; .'■ Sir Frederick saj'S rtlcoh^lltdoes not keep out the cold. DrFriank^ land (a very able authority) speakshighly of it as a heat pr6duce»V: and in that sense a food; , Prs, Anstie, Pavey, aud Piipre, also em-, phatically endorse this ■stat^w'Tmfc-- ,' Sir Frederick says the use of af cp- - hoi is diminishing among ;nietfical. men. That, remark isopenvtp Very.:,, grave" question. > Many, eminent meclicnl men did not agree with Sbty Fi'ederic'c at tne time of its ,*tte?j. "„ ance, and do not now. H& aisfl speaks of the dread the operating ; surgeon hes of the heavy drinker as a pntitjnt ; why not have :■' beeo. fair and included the heavjr eater;, c with whom the danger is equally, as great? /Therefore, I say fc>ir Fredei'ick" has allbwsd his personal -„ bias to obscure his sense of : " fair play. Alcohol is a pood servant,: but a bad master, and moderation, is the keynote- of thV -situation'..- 1... will conclude with the remarks of.-. Dr Mortimer Granville. He. saj r s-: '•'Alcohol is an integral, .though subsidiary article -of diot. ; and within I ' certain limits a f oocT, ; and ;_ . subserves useful purpps'es in the . normal functions of an organism.It is a source of an embodiment ofenergy, and oven the most ad,vaho6d physiologists on tho side of my op- ;> ponents candidly acknowledge., that lam right in this assertion.'' ; . . Speaking of the pi&iruee of influonra he said Uiat in his experience not one .case had terminated fatally in which a reliance on alcohol -' and good food had been rigorously maintained. Thore was no stimulant that could take the place of ■alcohol, mo was strongly of opinion that the spread of fevers, cancers, and ojtiier diseases \vas, in a large measure, due to the practice. >: of not taking sufficient alcohol in . the conditions of our social life." ? may mention, in passing, that -this gentleman holds as Mgh a ops(tion in the medical world as Sir. Fred-;, erick Trefves. \ I am, otc. P. RUSSEI^E/. Bishopdale, Nov. 18, 'OS. "